Mad Science Quiz of Doom

Mad science is quite a field! To succeed, you'll need sharp wits, a strong stomach and maybe a mutant assistant or two. So let's stroll through the mad science hall of shame and see just how well you know these deranged masters and their blasphemous experiments.

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Question 1 of 20

In the beginning, Victor Frankenstein created man. Following death threats from the resulting monster, he also agreed to create woman. What happened to this do-it-yourself lady creature?

She jumped to her death upon glimpsing the monster.

He abandoned the project unfinished.

Frankenstein never finished his she-monster out of fear that his corpse-stitched creations would get it on and beget a new race of unnatural superhumans.

Frankenstein kept her as his own bride.

Question 2 of 20

David Cronenberg's 1986 "The Fly" remake is loaded with gene-splicing gore, crippling degeneration and deep social commentary. Unsurprisingly, the teleportation accidents in the original 1958 film are a lot simpler. Just how are Dr. Andre Delambre's body parts mixed around with those of a common housefly?

swapped head

swapped head and arm

Delambre emerges from the telepod with a fly's head and arm -- yet he still managed to retain his human mind. At least for a while.

swapped head, arm and leg

Question 3 of 20

H.G. Wells’ Dr. Moreau stands as one of the nastier mad scientists of the 19th century. Not only did he want to play god and create intelligent life, he aimed to do it by performing experimental surgeries on live animals. As of this writing, five separate films have brought this monsterpiece to cinematic life. Which of the following actors did not play Dr. Moreau?

Bela Lugosi

Bela Lugosi did star in 1932's "The Island of Lost Souls," but not as the doctor. That role went to Charles Laughton.

Burt Lancaster

Marlon Brando

Question 4 of 20

"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is a gaudy celebration of mad science, horror and cross-dressing. In the film, Dr. Frank-N-Furter succeeds in creating life, but he also demonstrates a device that turns people into nude statues. What is this wondrous invention called?

The Sonic Oscillator

The Medusa Transducer

The Medusa Transducer could turn human beings into nude statues, and then back into humans again. Sadly, this device remains a mystery as the only known prototype left the Earth at the end of the film.

The Sonic Transducer

Question 5 of 20

When mad scientists reach a certain age, their minds turn to cloning themselves so that younger versions of themselves can carry on their legacy. Take Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth of "Futurama" fame for example. What name did he give the cloned offspring of his own back growth scrapings?

Dr. Alex Zorka terrorized audiences in the 1939 serial "The Phantom Creeps" with a host of fiendish mad science gadgets. They included a lumbering robot, an invisibility belt, exploding spiders and some sort of magical asteroid -- and he STILL failed to take over the world. Who played this incompetent madman?

Bela Lugosi

Bela all the way, baby.

Boris Karloff

Lon Chaney Jr.

Question 7 of 20

And then there's Rotwang, the mad scientist villain of Fritz Lang's 1927 German Expressionist masterpiece "Metropolis." Old Rotwang had a masterpiece of his own in the form of the beautiful she-robot -- and he also rocked a robotic prosthetic. What was it?

mechanical eye

mechanical hand

Rotwang was quite the mad science trendsetter with his gloved robotic hand -- a flourish later employed by Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.

mechanical leg

Question 8 of 20

Speaking of Dr. Strangelove, what neurological disorder does the ex-Nazi rocket scientist in a wheelchair have in the film?

In Joss Whedon's "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," our love-struck mad scientist requires a certain pilfered element to power up his freeze ray. What is it?

unobtainium

oxypheromalkahyde

wonderflonium

It was in fact wonderflonium.

Question 10 of 20

But speaking of oxypheromalkahyde, perhaps you remember a cult TV show called "Spaced”? Simon Pegg's character Tim writes a comic book in which the evil Dr. Mandrake tests the fictional substance on an orphan, turning him into a giant mutant what?

bear

Tim's comic is titled "The Bear," and indeed that's the mutant, mad science creature in question.

shark

bearshark

Question 11 of 20

On Nickelodeon's "Invader Zim," Professor Membrane devotes himself to super science while occasionally parenting his children Dib and Gaz. Who is Membrane's sworn enemy?

The Almighty Tallest

Ms. Bitters

Santa Claus

Membrane received infinite socks instead of uranium-238 for Christmas one year, fueling a deep desire to destroy Santa.

Question 12 of 20

Mad scientists love their pets! On the TV show "Fringe," what manner of four-legged friend does Walter Bishop keep in the lab?

On FX's "American Horror Story: Asylum," the sadistic Dr. Arthur Arden conducts a host of vile experiments on his patients -- and was played by which actor?

James Cromwell

Oscar-nominated James Cromwell played the sadistic ex-Nazi scientist. His son, John Cromwell, played a younger version of the character in flashbacks.

Zachary Quinto

Joseph Fiennes

Question 14 of 20

In the Christopher Nolan film "The Prestige," two rival illusionists wage war against each other -- and one of them enlists the aid of Nikola Tesla. What feat does Tesla's invention accomplish in the film?

matter duplication

While the invention appears to make people or objects vanish, it actually clones them via some form of matter duplication.

time travel

teleportation

Question 15 of 20

Let's think about the letter E. Which of these three scientists invented the proton pack?

Now let's think about the letter F. Which of the following men experimented on humans by forcing them to watch really bad movies in outer space?

Dr. Gordon Freeman

Dr. Jacob Freudstein

Dr. Clayton Forrester

Yes, neither a video game character nor an Italian horror film character, Forrester tormented humans and robots alike with cheesy movies on "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

Question 17 of 20

Randy Quaid played Frankenstein's monster in a 1992 TV movie, but he also got some lab work in as the twisted Elijah C. Skuggs in the 1993 comedy "Freaked!" Skuggs creates all manner of mutant monstrosities, including a bearded lady played by which long-whiskered actor?

Willie Nelson

Mr. T

Other Skuggs creations included a man with a sock puppet for a head and Ortiz the Dog Boy, played by an uncredited Keanu Reeves.

Brian Blessed

Question 18 of 20

Let's talk Spider-Man. The heroic web slinger has earned the ire of numerous mad scientists. Which of the following eventually turned into a giant lizard?

Otto Gunther Octavius

Curt Connors

After experimenting on himself in an attempt to regenerate a missing arm, Curt Connors transformed into a rampaging lizard -- but at least he kept the lab coat on.

Alistair Smythe

Question 19 of 20

Mad scientist Herbert West made a name for himself in film and comics as a reanimator of the dead. Which horror author created him?

Edgar Allan Poe

H.P. Lovecraft

Played by actor Jeffrey Combs in several movies, the corpse-meddling scientists originates in Lovecraft's 1922 tale "Herbert West—Reanimator."

Clive Barker

Question 20 of 20

The 1978 film "The Boys From Brazil" revolves around a plot to clone Adolf Hitler and a fictionalized version of Dr. Josef Mengele, the notorious real-life Nazi concentration camp physician. Who played him in the film?

Charlton Heston

Laurence Olivier

Gregory Peck

While Heston did go on to play Mengele in the 2003 film "Rua Alguem 5555: My Father," Peck did the honors in "The Boys From Brazil," and Olivier played the aging Nazi hunter in search of him.